Many have turned away from God because of this issue. J.B. Phillips, renowned author and theologian, tells of temporarily abandoning the faith his mother taught him while he watched her deteriorate into sickness, pain, and death over the course of months. C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, called this issue "atheism's number one weapon."
How do we deal with this?In attempting to answer this emotion-laden question, we must first realize that God has provided a little bit of understanding on the subject, but one day we will fully understand.
Paul the apostle wrote:
Now all we can see of God is like a cloudy picture in a mirror. Later we will see him face to face. We don't know everything, but then we will, just as God completely understands us.He has given us just enough light to get by.
Why didn't God create a world with no evil or suffering? He did! When he had finished making Eden, he said that it was "very good". No sickness, pain, or death at all. But God decided to give Adam and Eve free will. The rest of creation acts by natural forces such as instinct, gravity, and Newton's Laws of Motion, but man was made in God's image and given power to choose, to reason. Why did God make us this way? Free will is necessary for love. Have you ever seen a little doll that has a string which, when pulled, would cause the doll to say things such as "I love you"? That doll does not really love anyone.
In the film Bruce Almighty, God gives Bruce his power for a season, but he tells him not to overrule anyone's free will. When Bruce fell in love with a young lady, he asked God how he could get her to love him without taking away her free will. God responded, "Welcome to my world, son. When you figure that out, you let me know."
The prophet Isaiah wrote:
We all like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way.When Adam sinned, God said:
...the ground will be under a curse because of what you did. As long as you live, you will have to struggle to grow enough food. Your food will be plants, but the ground will produce thorns and thistles. You will have to sweat to earn a living; you were made out of soil, and you will once again turn into soil.So because of his choice, bad stuff began to enter the world. Moral evil and natural evil each gained a foothold. Nature is under a curse, as Paul wrote:
We know that the entire creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to this present time.When mankind told God to "shove off", he partially honored our request. Everything from typhoons to cancer afflicts us as a result of the cumulative sins of mankind. But just think how much progress we would make against natural evil, such as disease and hunger, if we didn't have to spend trillions of dollars combating mankind's moral evil with weapons, burglar alarms, guards, hidden cameras, armies, prisons, courts, etc.
So God didn't create suffering and death, but he did create the potential for it, because it was the only way to give us free will.
"But God knew all along that we would sin, and all this evil would happen!" True.
I have two kids, a seventeen year old daughter and a fourteen year old son. While my son has been a source of joy to me for (almost) all of his days, my daughter has caused me much heartache and sorrow for the last few years. Why would I bring children into the world with such an outcome possible? The years of joy that she brought me when she was younger, the occasional joy she gives me now, and the hope of a much better future make the present pain worth it. In other words, I love her, and I hope for her to love me just as much.
I have two dogs. They never break my heart. They never fail to be happy to see me. But they can never give me the kind of loving relationship that a son or a daughter can. God has a Father's heart, and we were created to enjoy a loving relationship with him.
Pain can be good. It can draw people to God. How many of us largely ignore him until we experience a crisis? Paul wrote:
For God can use sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation.Pain strengthens our character. Romans 5 teaches us that suffering produces perseverance, character, and even hope if we let it.
I went through an extended time of physical and emotional suffering from 1997 to 2000. I never again want to go through anything like that, but I never again want to be the man I was before that pain. I know I'm a better man because of the hard times.
God uses pain to lovingly discipline his people. Hebrews chapter 12 compares the discipline of a dad to that administered by the Heavenly Father.
Pain can be part of a healing process. I heard a man tell the story of how decades ago his young son broke his arm, and at the rural medical clinic, the doctor needed dad to hold his son while the doctor snapped the bone back into place. The dad was heartbroken at the look his son gave him, as if to say, "How can you help this man hurt me so much?" The boy didn't understand that this painful process was for his benefit, his healing.
The Biblical patriarch Joseph witnessed his brothers decide against killing him in favor of selling him into slavery. The slave traders sold Joseph to Potiphar, a high-ranking government official. Potiphar's wife falsely accused Joseph of molesting her, so he was thrown into the dungeon. Years later, Joseph hopes that a friend will help him get out of prison, but the friend forgets about him. For the next seven years the young inmate Joseph could have repeated a mantra such as, "God, why did you allow all of these bad things to happen to me?" But he maintained his trust in God's goodness, and eventually God exalted him to become the Prime Minister of the most powerful nation on Earth, which wouldn't have happened without all of the painful steps along the way. As Joseph said while forgiving his brothers, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good."
God will end suffering and evil one day. "But why doesn't he punish all who cause pain now?" If he did, we all would have been destroyed in Hell by now. But God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish. However, those who will never repent of the pain they have caused will be punished one day.
God's rewards for his people will far exceed all suffering they have endured. I doubt that any of us has suffered as much as the apostle Paul, yet he wrote these words to the Corinthians:
Our light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.This from a man who experienced beatings, scourgings, shipwreck, being stoned and left for dead, being bitten by a viper, betrayal by countrymen, humiliation, and prison, all considered "light and momentary afflictions" by the apostle.
Let's say January 1 of 2010, you have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. But every day for the rest of the year, you experience nothing but delights and blessings. You would look back and say that 2010 was a very good year. If you suffer for a time in this life as a Christian, look at it with an eternal perspective. Forever with no pain, no tears, no sorrow, only joy.
In our pain, God offers us peace and strength to endure it, and he offers us hope for a much better future.
Many thanks to the pastor of Chandler Christian Church, Roger Storms, for allowing me to use his excellent sermon on the topic to base this post on. You can hear the sermon here.
